Hi system3 most of what you are saying is true, work in Scotland seems to be plentyfull and I am glad that you are doing well, but a lot of places in the rest of the uk are not so lucky, no matter how good your marketing skills or how long you have been in business work is hard to come by, you seem to be a person who is lucky enougth to be multi-skiled (tileing, joinery ect) but not everyone is that able ! People wanting to do plumbing find it hard enough without thinking about haveing to do other trades work, Did you start off as a Plumber ? or were you a Carpenter / Tiler who got into plumbing, I know a few guys who have gone down that route, on the other hand I know a lot of Plumbers that cant stick a tile up or knock a nail in a piece of wood,
I've always been first and foremost a plumber, the other skills were self taught. I started a printing firm in 1998 and went on a day release course and became qualified in this, graphic design and marketing which has been tremendous in helping me with my plumbing.
Contrary to what you think, Scotland is NOT a utopia for plumbing work. In fact there are by ratio just about as much new plumbers chasing fewer jobs as you have in England.
Because of the overflow of tradesmen out there, customers can pick and choose who they want. In my opinion (and experience), price is NOT always the major factor on how a customer picks a company to carry out their work. They have to like you first and feel confident in your abilities, because after all you're a stranger to them and they could have you working in their home for 2 weeks.
That's where the marketing course comes in and the confidence to be able to sell yourself to a customer. You can be the best plumber in the UK, but if you grunt when you speak to a customer, avoid eye contact and worse still, don't smile, you'll bomb.
Why spend thousands on yet another industry course when you have no work, or hundreds on yet another barely used
tool? Spend it on a marketing course, learn how to bring the work in and THEN you can afford the luxury of a additional industry course, or that super expensive core drill. Try the marketing course and I bet in 6 months you'll be back here saying thanks for the advice.